In an extremely rare move, the United States Supreme Court today has smacked down (.pdf) the U.S. Solicitor General after he tried to force his way into the October 6 oral arguments in the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation’s upcoming Locke v. Karass case involving forced union dues.

Bush’s SG (Paul Clement and now Gregory Garre) had, apparently at the behest of the U.S. Department of Labor, previously filed an amicus brief which supported organized labor’s legal position in key ways. In fact, SEIU union lawyers cited the government’s brief 14 times in their own brief. As Foundation attorneys pointed out in their response, the federal government had no business even getting involved in this case, because no federal statute or federal interest is involved.

It is extremely unusual for the Solicitor General (often referred to as the Tenth Justice) to be turned down when requesting oral argument time.

This is a well-deserved slap in the face for the Solicitor General’s office and the Solicitor of Labor. They should be spending their time energy enforcing employees’ rights, rather than trying to tear them down.

The Bush administration should now do the right thing and withdraw its outrageous legal brief immediately, as previously demanded (.pdf) by Foundation president Mark Mix.